AT&T: 2.7% of customers will be affected by 3G shutdown

AT&T has been warning customers for years that it plans to shut down its 3G network in February 2022. And in a recent regulatory filing, the company disclosed exactly how many customers could be affected by the move.

“Approximately 2.7% of AT&T’s postpaid and prepaid consumer subscribers still rely on 3G-dependent devices,” the operator told the FCC. In its most recent quarterly SEC filing, AT&T counted a total of 192 million customers on its mobile network, including almost 80 million postpaid customers and 18.7 million prepaid customers. Thus, AT&T could count roughly 2.7 million customers on the 3G network it plans to shutter early next year.

AT&T has experience in this area. The operator discontinued service on its 2G network in 2017. According to AT&T’s filings with the SEC around that time, it counted 4 million customers on its 2G network, the bulk of which were IoT devices.

The disclosure of the number of its current 3G customers was part of AT&T’s effort to convince the regulatory agency not to intervene in its 3G network shutdown plans. Groups ranging from the Alarm Industry Communications Committee (AICC) to the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) to the Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS) have been arguing of the “deadly” effects that AT&T’s shutdown plans could have on customers who still rely on its 3G network and who have been unable to upgrade to 4G.

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